Out of Africa
The Out of Africa theory says that humans moved out of Africa around 60 - 70000 years ago and migrated to other parts of the world, including Australia.
Imagine tracing your whole family tree back thousands and thousands of years - all the way to your earliest ancestors! Scientists believe that all humans originally came from Africa.
Around 200,000 years ago, the first modern humans appeared in East Africa. Then, between 70,000-60,000 years ago, groups of these early people started exploring beyond Africa, slowly spreading across the world.
As they traveled to different places like Asia, Europe, and eventually the Americas. and Australia.
The Paleolithic Age: 3.3 million - 12000 BCE
Becoming paleolithic
Palaeolithic people were hunter-gatherers.
They were nomads who lived in tribes and relied on hunting, fishing and gathering wild fruits. They hunted animals like bison, mammoths, bears and deer.
Meat and fish were sources of food and animal hide was used to make clothes. They lived in clans of 20-30 people in caves, outdoors or in shelters made of tree branches and animal skin.
Ancient humans in the Palaeolithic period were also the first to create art that we can still see. They used combinations of minerals, ochres, burnt bone meal and charcoal mixed into water, blood, animal fats and tree saps to etch humans, animals and signs. They also carved small figurines from stones, clay, bones and antlers.
Activity 1. Imagine you are a Paleolithic nomad.
Write a short diary entry about your day
Where did you sleep?
What will you eat when you wake up?
What are you worried about?
Can you stay here or do you need to move?
What do you hunt for?
What can you collect in your area?
Activity 2. Imagine you are a Paleolithic artist.
Draw a vision of your day
What are you going to draw
What are you trying to represent?
What are the stories you would like to tell?
What are the materials you would like to use?
2. The Neolithic Revolution: 12000 - 9000 BCE
Paleolithic humans (hunter gatherers) lived a nomadic lifestyle in small groups. They used primitive stone tools and their survival depended heavily on their environment and climate.
Neolithic humans discovered agriculture and animal husbandry, which allowed them to settle down in one area.
The Neolithic revolution was the beginning of humanities transition from hunting and gathering in small groups to farming in permanent settlements. People domesticated plants and animals, planted crops, developed pottery to store surplus food and built villages. This shift dramatically increased food production and introduced social hierarchy and property ownership.
Activity 3. What was the neolithic revolution?
Use the slide show to answer the questions
Explain what archaeologists mean by the 'domestication of grasses' and how this led to the Neolithic revolution. Use examples to support your answer.
Which animals were first domesticated, and how did this contribute to the Neolithic Revolution
Write a list of five changes to people's lives caused by the emergence of agriculture
Make a list of the new jobs and positions that are possible with an agricultural surplus (extra food that can be grown and stored)
Describe the changes to human societies as a result of the beginning of trade.
Some people convinced other people to do the work, what did they do instead?
Becoming neolithic : The Natufians
The Natufian culture is the name given to the sedentary Paleolithic hunter-gatherers living in the Levant region of the near east between about 12,500 and 10,200 years ago.
Natufian Communities
For at least part of the year, Natufian people lived in communities, some quite large, of semi-subterranean houses. These semi-circular one-room structures were excavated partly into the soil and built of stone, wood and perhaps brush roofs.
Natufian Artefacts
Artefacts found at Natufian sites include grinding stones, which were used to process seeds, dried meats, and fish for planned meals and to process ochre for likely ritual practices.
Flint and bone tools and dentalium shell ornaments are also part of Natufian cultural material. Over 1,000 pierced marine shells have been recovered from Epipaleolithic sites in the Mediterranean and the Red Sea region.
Specific tools such as stone sickles created for harvesting various crops are also a hallmark of Natufian remains.
The first farmers?
Evidence suggests that that the Natufian people had begun to cultivate barley and wheat. The line between horticulture (tending wild stands of crops) and agriculture (planting new specific stands) is a fuzzy one and difficult to discern in the archaeological record. Most scholars believe that moving to agriculture was not a one-time decision, but rather a series of experiments.
Activity 4. Documentary analysis. The Natufians
What are the dates of the Natufian culture?
Where did the Natufians live? (include a map)
How did they live and how many of them were there?
Gathering the new “grasses” was the most important thing that Natufians did, how do we learn this?
What do we know about the way Natufians hunted?
What were the problems the Natufians faced when hunting?
Natufian tools were not just functional they were also artistic: Give some examples
How did the Natufians store grain so as to have a basic food source all year
What benefits were there in bands of Natufians meeting up?
How were the Natufians affected by the short Ice Age?
How did the Natufians adjust to the new colder climate?
What do we know about the Natufians domesticating grains?
How did Natufian lives change once they began farming?
Explain the benefits of harvesting grain
3. Cuneiform: Writing in the bronze age
Before there was writing there were Pictograms
We call these pictograms. Cuneiform.
Cuneiform emerged in Sumer 5000 years ago as a way of recording daily events.
Sumer was in the region we now know as the Middle East
The cuneiform was recorded on clay tablets
Tablets have been found for the following uses
Maps
Business records
Trade receipts
Recipes
Laws
Religious writing
Letters
Astronomy
To do: Create your own stories using Cuneiform pictograms.
4. Uncovering the past: The Olmecs
Who were the Olmec's?
The Olmec Civilization was one of the most influential ancient civilizations of the early Americas, and though its dominance of the region faded in the last centuries before the Common Era, the Olmec civilization is commonly thought to be the “mother culture” of many other cultures that appeared in the region in later years
Archaeology and the past
The Olmec civilization is what is known as an archaeological culture. This means there is a collection of artefacts thought by archaeologists to represent a particular society. What is known about archaeological cultures is based on artefacts, rather than texts
Olmec Town - San Lorenzo
San Lorenzo is a sprawling site which includes the Olmec metropolis of San Lorenzo but several smaller towns and agricultural settlements that were controlled by the city. The most important section of the site is on the ridge, where the nobility and priest classes lived. The western side of the ridge is known as the “royal compound,” as it was home to the ruling class.
Activity 5: Investigating the Olmec mystery
Create an historical folio that examines the mystery of the Olmec's.
Include the following information.
What are the approximate dates of the Olmec period
A map of the location of the Olmec's
How do we know about the Olmec's?
Use images to describe the 'Olmec heads', what do they look like?
Use artefacts to describe the Olmec religious beliefs
Is there evidence for human sacrifice?
What is Ulama and why was it a matter of life or death?
What is most mysterious aspect about the Olmec of ancient America?
How do archaeological sources help us to understand the Olmec's?
Why do archaeologists think the Olmec's were so influential for later empires like the Maya and the Aztec?
